I'm still tryin 2tke in all of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" -- a movie I watched just a few hours ago n dis is a gud ting,A very good thing.d movie sticks wit u,gets undr ur skin in ways dt surprise u hours later n,even better (or worse, depending on ur mood) makes u ponder evrythin 4rom d hypocritical nature of mankind to current politics to...ah yes,d tragic loss of Heath Ledger.
The usual suspects r present of course: a fantastic Christian Bale --1 of d greatest actors wrkin -- as Bruce Wayne, the legendary, sweet Michael Caine,d wonderfully understated Gary Oldman n d alwez perfect Morgan Freeman (can dt man possibly achieve a bad performance?).
Also appearing is Maggie Gyllenhaal,who replaces Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal is a vast improvement,intelligent n slinky,u totally undrstnd y a guy who cn gt watever he 1's,1's her).There's also Aaron Eckhart as District Attorney Harvey Dent -- primed 2becum Two Face and again,a brilliant,crazed n yet,oddly soulful Ledger.
Which brings me 2d heart of d,8times,sublime "The Dark Knight" -- as Ledger's Joker shows us (and forces upon Harvey Dent),d world is a plce of two faces,of darkness and light,of organization n chaos.Gotham City's criminal underbelly is a reflection of a world we sometimes walk through wit willfull ignorance,
not realizing we r part of such chaos n destruction. Or,8d very least,we allow it 2 happen arnd us.as long as we're warned.d Joker doesn't 1 us 2b warned.he thrives on chaos,cannot b bought n has no glorious plan.He's d Tyler Durden of Super-villains and,wil becum sumthin of a cult figure wit dis character.
His philosophy isn't exactly a new one (watch some film noir for prime examples) bt Nolan n Ledger make it fresh n inspired.n since these ideas r universal,it's hard 2 nt understand wer The Joker is cumin 4rm.At times (n dis might b a stretch 4 sum, bt nt 4me) it's even hard to dislike him.He's that great.
Bale is terrific in "The Dark Knight," but this is Ledger's movie all d way. Watchin him watch d world burn,I couldn't help bt tink (n dis wil sound bizarre)if he couldn't have returned to burn it a little more..
